Berrimilla sails on...

Something special

2012-02-04T08:40:00.001+11:00

This is a tiny replica of the Memorial to Lost Sailors at Cape Horn. http://www.caphorniers.cl/CH_monument.htm The original is 7 metres tall - Pete and I sailed past it about a mile out and I think I saw it but not sure as I do know now that I was looking in the wrong place. I heard about the replica on the grapevine and ordered a couple - the other one for Pete. They arrived this week.

The replica is available from the artist in Valparaiso. Contact me if you want one and I'll send details. I think it's rather lovely.

Hanging out...

2012-02-04T08:18:00.001+11:00

This photo is copyright PA Photos Ltd. UK. (www.pressassociation.com.)

It shows me standing around not shaking hands with anybody in particular but that really is the Queen in the background and the Duke of Edinburgh on the right. In December I was invited to a Reception at Buckingham Palace to celebrate Exploration and Adventure to coincide with the anniversary of Scott's last expedition. There were about 300 people there - not sure who fingered me for the gig but it was interesting! I walked to the Palace from RORC with Dame Ellen MacArthur who I had always wanted to meet. Not surprisingly, she knew her way across the park.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_MacArthur

Refuelling Nome

2012-01-14T10:54:00.001+11:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/russian-tanker-carrying-fuel-to-nome-just-6-miles-away-waiting-for-daylight-to-proceed/2012/01/13/gIQApsfcvP_story.html

I've asked Pat and Sue to send more photos...

NWP bloggery

2011-11-28T09:57:00.001+11:00

Speedy, bless his heart, put the NWP blog into blogspot as a fail safe precaution so it is still here
http://awberrimilla.blogspot.com/

All we seem to have lost from the NWP episode is the home page with the background to the story and we'll get that back up real soon now.

Steve Jackson has a full backup of the Berrimilla.com website and we are trying to recover the actual URL from wherever it has gone in cyberspace and that will go back up too.

Small disaster

2011-11-19T09:56:00.001+11:00

It seems that our web host has gone seriously belly up and the two Berrimilla websites are broken. We are recovering them from backups and will - we hope - have them on line again soon(ish). Might be tricky and we don't know how long it will take. I'll post here when they are back.

Working and Lurking in confined spaces

2011-09-27T17:00:00.001+10:00

Or the things that take you back in time...I have spent a reasonably tiresome day removing the closed cell foam insulation we put into Berri's living space in early 2008 before going to the ice. Way back then we first tried to stick it to the hull and coachroof using double sided tape - FAIL - so we used copious Sikaflex. I remember wondering as we applied the stuff whether I would ever have to remove the Sika stripes and knowing that if so it would be a task needing subsequent Consultation to steady the nerves and uncramp the muscles (the iodine in the T is a fantastic uncramper...). Serendipitous joyfulness - while shifting stuff around inside, I found a small unopened bottle of pure lemon juice left over from the Capetown shopping gig in 2009 and a decanted remnant of Dr Gordon's throat elixir in a plastic bottle. Yay - buy the T on the way home...

And also - amazingly - the remaining 3 pieces of assorted mini chocs from the big bag McQ, Kimbra and I bought in Cambridge Bay just over 3 years ago. A mini Snicker, a Crunchie and a Hershey Bar. I remember finding them in Falmouth in an earlier trawl as Pete and I got ready for part 4 and putting them in a safe place to use as birthday gifts for Kimbra and McQ. They seem to be a bit short of structural integrity this late in the proceedings so perhaps the photo will have to do.

And the mould - and the leak over Kimbra's bunk finally exposed - and Berri's original blue speckled interior gel coat reappearing with all its blemishes and the remnants of bathroom paint and other gunk applied by previous owners. And signs that some deck fittings need urgent attention. All of which has a lot to do with why I have an aversion to headliners in boats.

The photos - first 2 looking up into the aft coachroof, then special THHGTTG kit and lastly the lost treasures.

Fingers crossed - there might be a voyage in the - perhaps distant - offing...T acquired and nerve settling Con under way.

Onya Pete!

2011-08-22T00:10:00.001+10:00

Test flight was indicative - personal worst half - about 2.06.30. A bit slower than the world record for a marathon.

But a few things worked - this might sound a bit pretentious so I'll try to get it right: In Sydney, I help to deliver the ISAF Safety and Sea Survival course for offshore yachties. Part of the course mentions the need for "the will to live" - one of those meaningless catch phrases that is not really helpful in a survival situation. I try to get the message across in the classroom by developing the idea of the need for a mental plan to stay alive until the cavalry arrives. Lots of ways of doing this and each person will do something different but essentially you must manage time in your head and maintain a level of determination not to wimp out and die. No matter how long it takes, no wimping.

Following that theme but an apparent non sequitur, Pete Goss friended me on FB yesterday - some random flabber and a bit of ghast but noice! - and, coincidentally, I was reading his book (Close to the Wind) and specifically his astonishingly courageous rescue of Raphael Dinelli. Out there on the course this morning, wimpery was hovering. Turgid biomass, incipient then actual pain, brain not wanting to endure for the full two hours. Survival plan essential so I turned the thing into Pete's rescue - writ small, of course, but conceptually very strong. Raphael was out there in his sinking boat and I had to get there - as fast as possible. Every downhill became a surging incipient broach, every uphill a knockdown that had to be endured and recovered, in between was mental cups of tea, dealing with the pain of infected elbow, sorting the sailing and the autopilot and knowing that if I stopped and walked, Raphael got a bit colder. The crunch came at 9 miles where the Examiner cracked her whip and the legs faltered but Raphael was still out there so we soldiered on. Every pothole a cliff, every curve a corrosive dose of acid.

At 11 miles - vroom - the RAAF aircraft arrived and things started to improve but that last couple of miles and a bit was interminable - all gently or severely up hill and the boat was on its side for most of the journey.

And then there he was - at the 13 mile sign, a red liferaft, lit up by the RAAF...6 minutes late but we got there. Raphael alive - just. And he had champagne in the raft - odd people, the French! And if all this makes no sense, go buy Pete's book and read it - 'Close to the Wind' on Amazon will find it.

On the way, I passed several Consultant Surgeries - The Stag, The Crown and a third whose name my doozy mind refused to register. All that medicinal compound and not a drop to drink. The Examiner at her most exquisitely subtle.

Of shoes and ships and sailing wax

2011-08-21T02:48:00.001+10:00

Of serendip and kings - while negotiating the M5/M4 yesterday, got a text from the Falklands Cookie Crumbler who, by massive coincidence, was going the other way in the same tangled mess and only just the other side of the Gordano Services stop just south of Bristol. We met in the holiday disaster of a car park and she signed the CCA gong for me. Swoon! She probably doesn't read this trash any more but a wonderful opportunity and lovely to see her for the first time since we left Stanley in 2005.

Biomass turgid and unresponsive during test flight. Too much sailing, no running The half tomorrow will be mind over matter in spades. http://www.burnhamjoggers.org.uk/

Here's a link to the rest of my Jambalaya photos. https://picasaweb.google.com/alex1whit/Jambalaya

Haven't worked out how to upload the video but Geoff has put lots here http://teamjambalaya.tumblr.com/

Berrimilla breakfast

2011-08-20T15:52:00.001+10:00

We called into Falmouth for fuel on the way back to Plymouth and - remarkably - the correct ingredients for a proper breakfast materialised. There was some serious philistinism amongst the assembled company though - HP sauce yet! UGH! Left to right: Geoff, Ferret, Andy, Dara. Mark and David below.

And now, after negotiating the 200 mile parking lot that is the M5/M4 motorway system, I'm in Burnham trying to persuade my decaying biomass that it can stagger around the Burnham Beeches Half Marathon tomorrow. 5k Park run today as a flight test. Us'll see - I think another Berri breakfast might help.

I wonder who collected the Berrimilla Dogbowl in the Fastnet. Looks as if it might have been Paddy in Psipsina. Onya!

50 years on and history repeats...

2011-08-18T21:52:00.001+10:00

The old boat in Falmouth, looking a lot younger than the Old Fart.

Back in Plymouth - sadly. We went with an old mainsail with no 3rd reef and it karked in the 25 knots and lumpy sea half way across the Irish Sea. Memo to self...But a wonderful race - huge fun and we were going really well. There will be start video and other stuff on the Jambalaya website, thanks to Geoff.

Crew photos to follow

The calm before...what?

2011-08-14T15:49:00.001+10:00

Once again outside the little cafe with mega coffee and this time fortifying Bacon and Egg roll. Apprehension level up there in orbit with the ISS. Wood pigeons in the trees behind the marina - Take twooo coows Taffy...Take twooo cows Taffy

Will be a bit of a combobulation at the start (ours is at 1150 GMT) with 79 boats in our class all trying to find the best tide at the Island end of the line...The crew - Andy, the owner, Ferret (aka Alex and also a leftie) navigator, Geoff, Dragon sailor extraordinaire from Sydney, Darra, also from Sydney, Mark and David from Singapore and the old fart bringing up the rear. I'm back up navigator and rail meat.

Been a busy week, doing all the little last minute things, with a blast on the Solent yesterday to give everyone a feel for the boat. I think there is video on the Jambalaya blog. I don't think i will be able to update this one but there's a chance Geoff might be able to keep the Jamba one running via iphone. We'll see.

We have a small dose of medicinal compound from the Scottish glens to pacify Poseidon at the Rock but no other Consultative expertise aboard. Ah well!

Also a wonderful week, meeting lots of old friends around the place. I even met Ken Newman, the only other person, as far as we can tell, who was also on the start line 50 years ago. He's doing his 27th Fastnet, having done his first in 1957. (Fastnets only happen every 2 years, so work that out)

If we are not exciting enough, follow Tehani - McQ's new and exquisite Contessa 32, going 2 handed in class 4 and google Marco Nannini Racing to get the name of his Class 40 - its a sponsors name - Marco is sailing with our special friend and amazing sailor Paul Peggs who lent Pete and me his own boat Audacious for the 2007 Fastnet. They are preparing for a round the world race next year.

Fair winds to them all. See you lot in Plymouth, with, I hope, slightly less grey knuckles.

Nothing in particular

2011-08-12T17:41:00.001+10:00

Sitting outside tiny cafe in industrial part of Hamble Marina with maxi caffeine in paper cup and next to boat lift - a sort of box shaped hollow crane - watching as boats get lifted and water blasted and otherwise fixed.
Polyglot crowd around me - all getting ready to go racing today over in Cowes. South africans, french, dutch, an englishman who borrowed the pc to get a weather forecast...and this solitary Oz - and just joined by ace navigator from Jazz - tiddly pom.

About 52 hours to the start.

Another blog

2011-08-12T17:31:00.001+10:00

http://teamjambalaya.tumblr.com/

We might be able to update this one and maybe the Berri one as we go - will depend on mobile phone access as we don't have HF radio. What am I going to find to do all the time?

Lots of minor fixes under way. Weather forecast looks like a soft start on the nose, gradually strengthening. Us'll see.

Time passing part 2

2011-08-10T06:59:00.001+10:00

Leopard! Roughly 50 years ago in my first Fastnet, I was out off the Scillies in a memorable storm in this lovely boat. One of those nights that stay in the memory, etched there by fear and inexperience. Ant the noise - it was blowing about 50 knots and maybe a lot more and I had never felt noise in quite that way before. But then, I was only 19. Wonderful that she's got a new life.

Leopard had a wooden mast in those days. She was one of the Royal Naval College training yachts and there were at least two others in the race. She developed a rather severe leak in the stern gland during the storm and we retired - hence the unfinished business that we completed in Berrimilla in 2005.

Thanks to David Carne for the photo. I'm going down to Falmouth to see her after we finish this one - respects must be paid.

Long time ago...

2011-08-04T14:27:00.001+10:00

Time passing. The photo is me sitting on a boat called Leopard in 1961 before the start of the Fastnet - on August 13th, I think. Leopard is still around too - noice! - she's down in Falmouth and I'm working on getting a photo to put here to celebrate. I wonder how many of the boats that start this year will still be around in 50 years.

http://fastnet.rorc.org/
This is the Fastnet website and I am sailing on a J109 called Jambalaya. A bit of a learning curve after Berrimilla's rather less than sporty character. There will be 7 of us aboard - another learning curve - and I will intruduce them all later.

Meantime, a little bit of purgatory - Gatwick to Munich by squeezy jet.

The one-eyed undertaker sounds a futile horn,,,

2011-08-02T03:04:00.001+10:00

with apologies to Mr Dylan.

I wonder whether there are any tragics out there who still read this stuff. I'll churn out some more just in case.

Writing this at Bangkok airport on the way to London and eventually another Fastnet - this computer is moribund - more when I get to London...

Aurora!

2011-03-24T17:22:00.001+11:00

Wonderful green curtain across the sky over Hudson's Bay from the 747 - then the moon came up. The aurora too difficult to photograph through the window but here's the moon and Greenland. We crossed the Greenland coast from Davis Strait 48 miles north of Nuuk where we stopped in 2008 - eerie crossing Berri's track up there in the semi gloom before sunrise, with the sea ice in huge sheets. Couldn't see any bears but there was a ship (I think) out in the strait.

The Legends

2011-03-22T07:22:00.001+11:00

All 47 finishers, more or less in order, last to first

https://picasaweb.google.com/alex1whit/IditarodFinishers#

And you can read about them all here - click on the name link for the bio - some amazing people

http://www.iditarod.com/race/musherlisting.html

A couple of days ago

2011-03-22T03:34:00.001+11:00

Blueberry DEEElight for breakfast - yeehaaa. But I earned it with an early run out in the snow. Loose, drifting powder snow - crunchy over the ice but easy to run in. The problem still is getting the clothing combination right so that the decrepit old body stays at a reasonable temperature. And the nose doesn't get frostbitten.

My thousand or so friends are out playing golf on the ice - cheating essential - and the course is just behind the Breakers Bar - one could Consult,out on the verandah at the back and wave and encourage them all with loud cries.One just might get around to it. And the Nome forest is flourishing - all the christmas trees get planted on the ice in Iditarod week.

Some local trepidation about what might be happening at Fukushima - too many people listening to and believing CNN.

Photos slowly getting to picasa - captions as and when I can get there.

Sled dogs - wonderful animals! DeeDee Jonrowe is also a marathon runner, like her dogs. A formidable team. There are still 5 teams out on the trail - the weather is changing and it's looking like a white out at the mo. Musher signing this afternoon - they all sit in a big hall under their names and sign shirts and hats and posters.

Vernal equinox

2011-03-22T03:29:00.001+11:00

6 minutes and 38 seconds more daylight in Nome today - through the snow showers and the 25kt southerly. The powder snow blasts into your eyes and makes drifts behind all the obstructions.

A 7 hour banquet yesterday for the Iditarod presentations. It was held on the basketball court with the stands removed and about half the population of Nome seemed to be there, I have a complete set of photos of all the finishers which I will upload today. What an interesting and varied bunch of people!

The house almost empty again, with most of the inmates departing on the banquet flight last night. My last day today - Anchorage, Seattle and London tomorrow if Alaskan is flying.

Everyone home safe

2011-03-21T08:31:00.001+11:00

Ellen Halverson lit the red lantern for the second year running. And everyone home in time for the Mushers' banquet this evening. Should be fun. Photos of Ellen and other stuff on picasa:

https://picasaweb.google.com/alex1whit/GolfOnTheBeringSea# and other albums.

The house is emptying. As long as the weather allows, everyone will have left by Tuesday lunchtime including me.A fascinating bunch of people.

There's even a post banquet flight taking a crowd of diners back to Anchorage tonight after the banquet. Should be an interesting flight...to say nothing of Monday morning back at work.

Just to show I haven't forgotten

2011-03-19T17:05:00.001+11:00

Takes a bit of space and tranquility to write this stuff - not a lot of either in the house at the moment - seldom less than about 20 people in various stages of celebration and usually 50 or so blow through every evening. DeeDee Jonrowe got in a couple of days ago, Martin Buser a day later (both Iditarod legends) and Magnus running his first, with Martin's younger dogs. at 0330 this morning so all our resident mushers are home safe. I'm gradually uploading photos and adding captions as I get a chance - here's one of the albums https://picasaweb.google.com/alex1whit/DeeDeeMartinAndMagnusAllHomeSafe#

The weather has been sparkling - but gales and snow forecast for Sunday. Sunday is also the day of the Iditarod Banquet. I have a ticket and will try to report.

Outside in the freezer - and crabbing

2011-03-15T21:14:00.001+11:00

On the verandah - lasagne and blueberry delight measured by the acre. Noice. The Amber in the fridge in the bottle shop feels warm - and given the outside air temperature, it is warm.. I now have a small stash out on the verandah as well.
Today we went out about a mile and a half offshore and set two crabpots under the ice. First, Pat had to renew his permit, then we restrung netting on one of the pots, loaded a couple of sleds with tools and set off on four snow machines. Photos and captions here. https://picasaweb.google.com/alex1whit/CrabPotsAndOtherStuff#

It's 0115 and I think I'm the only one awake...The mushers will start to come in today - we will have three staying here with their friends and relations plus at least one dog team. The teams don't stay long - they are shipped out by air with their handlers as soon as space is available on an aircraft. The mushers stay for the banquet.

Someone is asleep on a mattress a few feet from where I'm writing this - can't make coffee without waking whoever it is...0215 - back to bed - where there are 2 more people on the floor.

Mini Mukluk

2011-03-14T12:20:00.001+11:00

Wow. Wonderful, loosely organised event, started with a real shotgun. I earned my T shirt. There were perhaps 30 runners for the 5 miler (not measured but it felt about right). Lots of them kids and guys running with their dogs. I finished 8th, I think - in about 33 minutes, behind some 11 year olds and the dog walkers. Cold - several layers over most of me but not the face - really difficult to manage the face without a mask - I used a hoodie with a thin wool balaclava under it and wrap around sunnies (essential or you get snow blind). The Balaclava sends sweaty breath up under the sunnies so fog-out most of the time and if I hoicked the chin bit down, my tongue and nose started to freeze. Interesting. Very hard to run on ice, packed snow and gritty road too.

The Iditarod party is just starting in the house - two days before the first musher is due. There will be about 30 people in the house, sleeping wherever they fall from Monday onwards for about a week. Bedlam - you ain't tryin'. I like Alaska. The cooking plan is just going up on the fridge...

No pics today. We're just south of the best aurora viewing belt - saw it as a faded glow a couple of nights ago.

Mad racers

2011-03-14T05:04:00.001+11:00

The Nome-Golovin snow machine race - low flying over the snow. About 200 miles to Golovin and back, and at least one refuelling stop. Serious machinery and some dedicated racers, male and female. Spectacular crashes - one on the start line when someone drove across the course with brain in neutral and caused massive wipeout with two machines mangled but no serious injury. Fast course yesterday and the winner came home in under 2 hours.

Today, the celebrations wind up a gear with the Mini Mukluk Marathon - 5k in sub zero temperatures. I'm in it for the T shirt! The problem, I think, will be to avoid freezing my face but not overheating the rest of me. Interesting - cobbling together various bits of arctic Berri gear and running shoes.

The party starts - first planeload of people arriving at the house. Gotta go!

Race photos on picasa https://picasaweb.google.com/alex1whit/GolovinSnowMachineRace#

A few more photos

2011-03-13T05:53:00.001+11:00

Yesterday afternoon I dug the snow machine from its winter bed. Non-trivial exercise as the snow was packed and hard - took a couple of hours of serious work. Today, the Golovin Snow Machine race (google it) - 200 miles in under 2 hours. The conditions make for a very fast race - photos later. Tomorrow, the Mukluk 5k run - I'll be there, maybe just for the T shirt.

More photos on picasa, here https://picasaweb.google.com/alex1whit/DivingForGold# and additions in some of the other albums. Captions and editing to follow.

Diving for gold

2011-03-12T16:37:00.001+11:00

Kevin and Cliff and David in the photos - the crew out on the ice. Kevin and David dive under 5 feet of ice and Cliff looks after the gizmology on the surface. Awesome operation - low tech but very impressive. Two big problems to manage - temperature and pressure - from which flow a lot of others. All driven by various engines and pumps and a compressor.

Temperature - how to keep the diver warm. There's a 120 ft coiled copper tube acting as a heat exchange - water flows through it and is heated by a substantial gas flame inside the coil. The water flows down an insulated tube to the diver's suit and is directed to his sternum and gloves. They are working on regulating this under water - at the moment it is controlled by Cliff adjusting the water flow. If the control fails and the diver starts to burn - well, one of the suits allows the diver to disconnect, the other doesn't - yet.

Pressure - if I understood it correctly - how to prevent the heat loss from the expansion of compressed gas freezing the moisture in the breathing regulator valves and other vital components of the divers' survival equipment. Way more tricky and they have several systems to help with this - basically trying to keep the pressure difference as small as possible and heating the compressed breathing air by keeping the supply line close to the hot water supply.

Then there's the problem of light under 5 feet of ice - there is a set of sealed beam car headlights that sits under the ice base and can be anchored with weights and they cut away the surface ice to get a smooth glassy window to let sunlight in as well. - not too difficult,

And there's safety if things go wrong. Kevin uses a 'bail bottle' of compressed air that allows him to disconnect from the compressor line and float free. However - there's always a however in risky ventures - he then has a whole new pressure differential freezing problem in his regulator.

And the sluice box...And moving the shed...

Lots of related stuff - absolutely fascinating - and yes, they find enough gold to make it worthwhile.

I'll check all of this with Kevin when I can catch up with him and correct as necessary. We came in off the ice because of the tsunami warning.

Have a look at the photos - I'll get them on to picasa as soon as I can and post a link. Probably tomorrow.

Some questions

2011-03-11T14:47:00.001+11:00

i wonder why it's so lumpy, how far you can walk out on it, what happens to the tides, how thick is the ice there, are there waves crashing against sea ice somewhere out on the edge of it, how far away the island is, how tall is that pressure ridge...?

It's lumpy because of the tidal effect and the movement caused by recent strong winds.

Sledge Island is about 21 nautical miles from the camera and about 4 miles out from the shore to the west of Nome. If you google earth Nome, AK and zoom out you can see it all, but in summer dress. I was messing around about 200 metres beyond the outer harbour mouth and the big pressure ridge surrounds the end of the western causeway.

You can walk out as far as it seems safe to do so - if it's moving or there are big cracks, beware. Snow shoes or skis are safer than just the boots I had, and I did not have a pole as a probe so I was very cautious. The ice is at least 4 feet thick, from the evidence of the big slabs in the pressure ridges but the thickness is not constant. I'll know more tomorrow when I go out to visit the gold diver. There are certainly waves out there somewhere - how far out depends on the season and the extent of the ice. We saw them in the distance in 2008 up near Wainwright.

This ice chart of the west Bering Sea shows roughly how far it goes at the moment. http://www.natice.noaa.gov/pub/weekly/arctic/2011/charts/bering_sea_west/berwcurrentcolor.pdf

Difficult to interpret but Nome is under the lower right corner of the box containing the number 89 top right of the chart. So the ice extends 340 miles SW of Nome, out past the Pribilof Islands. You can look at it in conjunction with google earth.

The big pressure ridge is about 25 ft tall at a guess - very difficult to judge.

Hoping to see the aurora tonight...

Running on ice

2011-03-11T13:58:00.001+11:00

Or why I've always wanted YakTrax but was afraid to ask. They are weird to run on and energy sapping but very effective on packed snow. Not so good on smooth ice. And I'm learning about the different noises snow makes and even a bit about what it means - language, grammar and syntax, just like in a boat. Especially necessary to learn this language out on the sea ice. There's a sort of hollow empty-bottle nasal graunch that means things are not necessarily all they seem to be and you're on the point of going through the surface crust. Safe enough most of the time and you only go in up to the knee - but there are places out there where the snow has covered big cracks and you get no warning. Soft cruush and you're in. So I'm trying to find surface signs as well. Those of my friends who go out to play on Everest and who might be reading this may sigh at this naive foolishness but one has to learn sometime.

Today was so still that sound carried for miles - and, as I was wearing a balaclava the Yakkie crunch climbed all the way up my spine and rattled my empty and echoing skull. Out on the ice later, I could see a bulldozer at the base of Anvil Mountain so at least 4 miles away and maybe 5 but it sounded as if it was out there with me.

More photos in the Alaska2011/2 and Sledge albums and a new one playing with skip and mirage. https://picasaweb.google.com/alex1whit/SkipAndMirageOverTheSeaIce#

Nome - again...

2011-03-10T01:55:00.003+11:00

The inner harbour sea wall...

Here's a link to some more photos. https://picasaweb.google.com/alex1whit/Alaska2011#

This computer still thinks it is in Australia so the dates and times will remain constant in Australian EST - nearly a day ahead of astronomical time here.

Is it a bird? Is it a fish?

2011-03-10T01:25:00.001+11:00

Fascinating experience flying into Alaska. As you board the plane, you enter a different country - Anchorage was just for openers. Here in Nome it's another world. But crisp, clear sunshine (unusual...) and a frozen sea. Yesterday I walked where we parked Berrimilla in 2008 around the end of the inner harbour wall and into the outer harbour whence we set off into the very much unknown towards the arctic circle, that amazing sunset in the Bering Strait and the ice at Barrow. Ah, nostalgia. Lots more to come.

We flew up here in a composite 737 - freight in the front of the fuselage and about 20 rows of seats at the rear. It was flying the round trip to Nome and Kotzebue - one of the many many places we passed by in Berri...

Skinning teeth.

2011-03-08T23:13:00.001+11:00

Glad I had that bagel on 8th yesterday. Sustained the spirit during one of those days - flat tyre on the way to La Guardia at 0500 in Queens - my driver has a prosthesis instead of his right hand, so I changed the wheel - rather fast - and we scraped in in time to get me through the nightmare that is US airline security to find that my booking left no time to make the connecting flight in Chicago. Made worse by delayed take off. I'd done my research and ran from the entry gate at O'Hare to the boarding gate - about 800 metres - and made the tail of the boarding line. But - most gobsmacking of all - my bag made the plane as well. Onya Alaskan Air!

It's about -10C in Anchorage, dark now but clear and crisp in daylight. Nome around lunchtime today, Alaskan Air permitting.

www.iditarod.com if you want to follow it.

And this is the 'official' press release.

http://www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?Nid=81120&refre=y&ntid=0&rid=8

Just a handshake from W 49th St.

2011-03-07T19:10:00.001+11:00

It's 0245 in the Big A - drizzly luminous mist, the tops of the buildings glowing or lost in the murk high above (who lives up there?? - and how different must be their lives...perhaps the line for a novel) and the subway steam wreathing around a lot. The garbage trucks crashing the big skips in and out of their compressors and the yellow cabs still busy. The night people are out in force.To coin a cliche. I've just been across 8th Ave to an all night food market for an onion bagel with cream cheese (bliss on a red carpet!) and what passes for coffee here. I'm fully back into the old Berri 3 hours on, 3 off routine that Pete and I were in for all those days and miles. Seems to happen every time I cross a bunch of timezones and it does help with the jet lag.

In about 3 hours, I'll be leaving for La Guardia airport and a flight to Anchorage via Chicago. Food available for purchase and a charge for checked baggage. Overnight in ANC- in the Puffin Inn, a modest establishment next to the airport and then to Nome tomorrow. Where it will be sub arctic cold and twilight. I have some of the North West Passage arctic gear with me - will be fascinating to be there before the sea ice melts - in 2008, we snuck in following the melt and arrived on July 4th in time for the celebration. I'm hoping the barman at the Breakers' Bar will be cooking his special Brisket for the Iditarod finish as he did for July 4th. As promised, there will be photos. And a description of the brisket if it eventuates.

For those who care, some interest here in the concept of leaving NZ to starboard - but I doubt whether any or yer actual takers. We won't be doing the Fastnet this year - Entry list limit already reached and a waiting list of hundreds. Sad but, for this shoestring geriatric, probably inevitable.

So - for the two or three of you who might still be following this - see ya later today from ANC, airlines and wx permitting.

Presentation

2011-03-07T04:17:00.002+11:00

A couple of pics from the presentation. Scary stuff - in one of the most spectacular rooms I've ever been in. http://www.nyyc.org/gui/nyyc1/uploadedfiles/panoramas/panoramas_44/04model_rm4800_qt.htm The other people - on the left, Bob Drewe, past commodore, Alessandro diBenedatto (truly legendary sailor who we were talking to down near the Kerguelens as he circumnavigated in his tiny boat) and Sheila McCurdy, Commodore of the CCA. Wow!

And properly rigged in the rain outside the clubhouse in central New York. Thanks to Dan Nerney - legendary photographer - for the photo!

Berrimilla's Teapot

2011-02-23T14:44:00.001+11:00

Off to New York next week and then over to Nome for a nostalgic Consultation with Pat Hahn and perhaps an expedition by snowmobile out on to the sea ice to cross Berri's July 4th 2008 track into Nome and take some photos for the blog. Once in a lifetime eerie feeling. Here's the NY gig http://www.cruisingclub.org/awards/awards_bluewater.htm

Over the last month, I've been removing the green salty stuff from Berrimilla's elegant teapot, possibly the only teapot in history to have circumnavigated via both Cape Horn and the North West Passage. Then I polished it to within an inch if its life and had it appropriately engraved with its story. And last Friday, I rose to my back legs and showed a few slides to the worthy people at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron. At the end of the gig, we auctioned the teapot in aid of CanTeen, Berri's favourite charity. For the impressive sum of $1995, it now has a new home, on another boat chasing a Dream. May they all travel in harmony together and have lots of tea and many more adventures.

On behalf of CanTeen, special thanks to P & V for their generosity.

More garden wildlife

2010-12-28T11:36:00.002+11:00

A St Andrew's Cross spider - harmless and gorgeous. About 3cm across.

Sydney - Hobart start pics

2010-12-26T17:51:00.001+11:00

In case anyone is interested

http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/10781104/1/S2H%202010?h=9ccda9

For the first time in about 20 years, we watched it from the sidelines...

Snow!

2010-12-01T08:34:00.001+11:00

I'm in London working with the Royal Cruising Club Pilotage Foundation www.rccpf.org.uk on a guide for Arctic and Northern Waters - absolutely fascinating and some real sailing legends here too. And it's snowing in London....http://picasaweb.google.com/alex1whit/SnowInLondon#

This one is Green Park a couple of days ago...http://picasaweb.google.com/alex1whit/GreenPark#

Wow!

2010-11-02T16:13:00.001+11:00

I received the following email a couple of weeks ago and I have permission to post it here. Scary stuff, and it couldn't have happened without the generous and enthusiastic support of all y'all out there. Thanks for a great ride!

Lists are tricky but very special thanks to Pete, McQ, Kimbra, Steves J. and W., Speedy and Malcolm, Leroy Chiao and Pascal Lee.

Hello Alex,

It is my distinct pleasure to inform you that the Board of Directors of The Cruising Club of America have voted to award you the 2010 Blue Water Medal, "for a most meritorious example of seamanship". The award will be made at our annual dinner at the New York Yacht Club on March 4th 2011. We are prepared to provide transportation and accomodations. I need your regular mailing address so that I might send a more formal letter, and it would help if you could provide me with a telephone number for reaching you.

Congratulations! and Well Done!

Bob Drew, Chair, Awards Comm.

www.cruisingclub.org

The Arthur C. Clarke greenhouse

2010-10-07T17:11:00.001+11:00

It's getting cold and dark up there. Thanks Keith for the link.

http://www.spaceref.com/gallery/greenhouse1.html

More wildlife

2010-10-01T16:21:00.001+10:00

A Huntsman in the letter box - also gorgeous, but shy and harmless.

And a Kookaburra at sunset.

Sydney wildlife

2010-09-29T07:12:00.001+10:00

A redback spider - gorgeous beast with a nasty bite (treat with an ice pack to solidify the venom). This one is big, about 25mm across - she was inside the spout of the little watering jug and I disturbed her when I filled it.

And a lizard on a rock beside the harbour, about 40 cm long.

Look who's in town

2010-09-24T15:11:00.001+10:00

Ably assisted by the good Dr Cooper.

http://picasaweb.google.com.au/alex1whit/AProperConsultation#

And another

2010-09-03T16:48:00.001+10:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11172543

We were dodging sandbars as we passed close to Gjoa Havn. It seems this tanker was on a routine supply trip to the local communities.

Onya!

2010-09-01T18:25:00.001+10:00

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/sailing/7966301/Ellen-MacArthur-I-cant-live-with-the-sea-any-more.html

Nice day in the Arctic

2010-08-30T17:55:00.001+10:00

Here's the latest webcam image of the greenhouse and Berrimilla's rock.

http://yfrog.com/gi8otoj

The Arthur C. Clarke greenhouse

2010-08-30T06:58:00.002+10:00

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/08/27/mars-greenhouse-arctic.html

Donated by Keith's company, SpaceRef and built by Keith and Marc, SpaceRef geniuses...

Murphy

2010-08-30T06:41:00.001+10:00

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2010/08/29/north-cruise-ship-stranded.html?ref=rss

Some HMP links and other stuff

2010-08-29T10:21:00.001+10:00

I've been chastised for neglecting the blog - sorry, been in the wilds of Brisbane sitting in on a Marine Watchkeepers' course playing with fire, amongst other things.

Here are the links to things happening at HMP and the Mars Institute.

http://www.marsonearth.org/

http://www.marsonearth.org/2010/07/

http://www.marsonearth.org/multimedia/gh-webcam1.html You can see Berrimilla's rock to the right of the ridge on the horizon above the greenhouse - cool! The wind turbines on the poles are the same as we used on Berrimilla.

For the ride home, I found a copy of Michael Collins' book 'Carrying the Fire' (NY, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux) reissued in 2009 for the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing. Beautifully written and evocative. Hard to believe that those three guys are all 80 this year.

Opposites

2010-08-20T13:49:00.001+10:00

http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/contenthandler.cfm?id=2232

Courtesy of Dale Andersen, who was one of the people in the bar in Baton Rouge at the genesis of Berri's NW Passage gig.

The other end of the world -HMP's John Schutt and the Resolute Twotters are all going down there in September. Envy! The Twotters fly down from Resolute and across Drake Passage from Punta Arenas (I think) and the pole - what a ride

Two days out from tomorrow

2010-08-20T13:33:00.001+10:00

I'm sitting under a tree about 100 metres from the building at the centre of the old Naval Air Station at Moffett Field where the Admiral once had his office. There's a big flagpole with the Stars and Stripes and it's a glorious day – just a bit of misty haze that filters the deep blue of the sky. I'm hanging around for a couple of hours before my lift to the airport and my flight back to Sydney – the redeye that leaves at 2250 and arrives on the other side of the dateline at 0610 after adding a day to the date.

The contrast is extraordinary. The stark, bleakly indifferent ice age landscape on Devon Island with its savage beauty and its tiny wonderfully adapted wild flowers, its damp fog and its cloudbase that blends with your consciousness, the occasional sunshine through the exhilarating clarity of an almost unpolluted atmosphere – and the silence so deep that you can hear it – these things don't live in the same world as the crimson rose and the rampant daisies beside me. Yet they do – and that's the point – Mars (almost) on Earth.

A memorable three weeks rounded off yesterday by dinner with Pascal's asteroid team who are developing a plan to land humans on an asteroid and do some science….

And there I was interrupted in full hyperbolic tilt by a text from Pascal requiring me to front the Medical Review Board, Dr Cooper himself, no less. Noice!

And now I'm at SFO airport having spent a significant dollop of tolerance and an hour convincing the United check in staff that I am actually booked on my flight – I suspected that my earlier euphoria was premature and so it was. But I have a boarding pass - we'll see if it gets me on the plane!

I will try to summarise the 2010 HMP program in my next. Meantime all the photos are now on the website – just follow the earlier link.

More photos

2010-08-16T20:58:00.001+10:00

http://picasaweb.google.ca/alex1whit

Today, DV & WP - C130 to Vancouver, then to Moffett Field tomorrow. Oh Joy - United have changed my ticket (and waived the fee!!) to allow me to fly back to Sydney from SFO.

Would be a real blast if the weather is clear and we can retrace some of Berrimilla's track from two years ago on the way to Yellowknife.

Resolute! Thanks all round.

2010-08-16T12:34:00.001+10:00

By the skin of our teeth as it were. Rescued by a Government Inspector, no less, who blew in in an empty aircraft to do a routine inspection and lifted the 7 of us who have to get somewhere else urgently out of HMP. Thanks!

Sad to leave the Crater - a very special week with some very special people out in the boonies. Thanks Pascal and all y'all on the project.

And thanks to Steve J, who, I understand, has cleaned up the website yet again while I fiddled in the background.

I now must do a search for flights that will get me to the Church aka Ottawa Airport on time. Complicated as I have to decide where to get off the C130 and I don't yet know when we will leave tomorrow.

If I can keep my eyes open after that, I will put the rest of my photos on picasa.

Antsy and downto the wire...

2010-08-16T05:29:00.001+10:00

Still beside the Crater. 11 antsy people, some way more so than others, and Pascal and me - we all know that we may yet be here for another 10 days - each of us coping with our own mental agendas as we create our own little areas of turbulence or calm in the ghostly skeleton of the camp. Ping Pong in charge, her ears in full attention and brain in gear - I'm sure she has a Plan!

The weather is now just inside the marginal for flying - we've been keeping hourly skeds with Polar Shelf in Resolute - "Ok - 350 to 500 ft, no precipitation, vis 4 miles...seems to be breaking up in the lower layer - we can see the sun's disc - we can see the upper level cloud through the gaps - back to 300 ft, rain, no breaks - looking better to the west - call back in an hour while we check the satellite data - seems to be clearing over the Wellington Channel...". And so it goes.

Right now, Resolute has the first signs of a real break and it's moving towards us...we'll call you again in an hour...

I wrote earlier about the geological treasure chest we are living in. HMP have lent me some samples of breccia and shatter cones (at 39 million years old) and a bit of fossilised coral from a 450 million year old Barrier Reef to show to schools in Australia and perhaps to generate projects and experiments for the camp as contributions to the space program. Physics, medicine, communications, geology, astronomy - anything relevant to the space program is ok. Just keep it simple and focused. If there are any teachers reading this - get in touch! HMP would be especially pleased to have Australian schools involved.

So we mingle and dissipate and find things - mindless things, often - to do to pass the time. Almost everything except toilet paper is packed away - the kettles are still cooking water, the little generator makes this email possible, last minute jobs await the departure of the plane from Resolute - or not. Almost the last job will be bearproofing the Humvee as far as is possible. I have seen photos of the devastation caused by a hungry bear and it's astounding. This particular bear probably departed on a caffeine high judging by the state of the instant coffee jars. The camp has learned from that experience and now stores remaining food in the Humvee and locks and cargo straps it. Even so, a bear nearly got through last year by distorting an aluminium door.

My bags are packed, for the fourth time, and this bit of bloggery is a time sponge. If we don't get out this afternoon, I must cancel my return flight to Sydney and plead with United to let me rebook it. That will be an interesting discussion. I can hear the rain clattering on the tent - not looking good...Hanging in for that break over Wellington to come this way...

Geological treasures - history in the landscape.

2010-08-15T00:57:00.001+10:00

No change - or if any, for the worse. Foggy, cold drizzle, enough breeze to add a chill factor and drive the drizzle into your face and elsewhere on the trek to the drum and with the little things that matter exposed.

So - 13 of us, temporarily marooned in a tent complex in a geological treasure chest. The camp is close to the remains of a 350 million year old coral reef with fossils from before fish had teeth. Channels, canyons and lakebeds everywhere, from the ice age and the great melt - the valleys were formed by moving ice and water as the huge ice sheet melted. This site was under about 2 miles of ice which formed lakes as it melted and then rivers that carried deposited silt on to flood plains and down to the sea. There are huge rocks scattered around that were carried on the surface of the ice and dropped through as it melted - called, not surprisingly, drop-stones. Berrimilla's Rock is a piece of the original coral reef that broke off an exposed ridge perhaps 10,000 years ago and rolled down to its present spot.

And the camp is beside the Haughton Crater, formed about 39 million years ago by the impact of a meteorite estimated to have been half a mile across. The meteorite vaporised as it impacted, bringing up the geological strata from a mile below the surface and melting it in the explosion so that as it cooled it became breccia - a complex mix of once molten fragments and cooling vapour that is a a grey and rough rock - until you cut it and polish the surface to reveal the complexity of the structure of the rock. The crater was formed in a few seconds as the molten fragments spread outwards at a kilometre a second. Pascal is, among other things, a geologist and he is taking samples this year for analysis to try to establish the composition of the meteorite impactor.

The end of time

2010-08-14T14:37:00.001+10:00

Here we (still) are in a sort of ghostly hibernation - the camp metabolism down to a minimal heartbeat, the tents unlit and shadowy wraiths in slo-mo animation inside. I can see 7 laptops some with attendant hooded and earphoned face glowing and flickering with reflected light of a movie or computer game. The little generator toiling away outside, one stove going in the big mess tent just keeping it habitable. Earlier, the rain was clattering against the sides of the tent, blown by the gusty 25 knot wind bringing polar cold from the north. A short gap a few hours ago when it looked as if the aircraft might fly and I packed my bags for the third time - wrong! The wind has died to a much more gentle blast but the cloudbase has not lifted.

So here we sit. The C130 should be in Resolute by now and is due to leave again tomorrow. Doesn't look as if we will be on it unless it can wait for us and that means a whole lot of gear that is still here will need to be sent south by commercial flights when it can be moved out. Us too.

The camp gets its water from a stream a few hundred metres away. In normal operations, there's a water pump to get it up here. Not any more - all the pumping gear is packed away and we do a water run when heeded with jugs and big urns. Noodles and freeze dried food - back in Berrimilla mode for me but the food ain't so good here. One way I can certainly contribute is to make some suggestions as to what to bring next time. The only thing that gets cooked is water - big kettles on the tiny Coleman stove - and the hot water is kept in 2 big thermos containers and of course, is never hot enough for a good cup of tea! Two teabags and a long jiggly soak is the go, for a brownish stain in the water in my slowly collapsing paper cup that will I keep recycling until it dies.

Pascal is writing his reports, John and his people are at the moment out in the cold fetching more fuel drums and finishing all the close-down jobs that can be done without squeezing the heartbeat out of the place while we are still living here. The others are sleeping or here with their laptops.

It is beginning to get darker at night - it is now 2315 and quite gloomy inside the tent - I can only just see to type. The 300ft cloudbase doesn't help.

Outside, bleak, wet, misty magnificence. I will post more photos when I have a proper link again. The mess tent in what I hope will be its last few hours of animation before it slowly becomes a crystal cave in the dark of winter.

Perhaps tomorrow...

This and that - passing the time

2010-08-13T19:36:00.001+10:00

0400 Friday 13th

Yesterday evening just for fun, I pulled in the GRIB weather for Devon Island and Resolute. It was giving 10 kts from the north at midday today - perfect for flying out. I did not specify precipitation in the file...and it has been blowing about 30 kts and gusting ever since, with heavy rain. The rain is abating and the cloudbase is now about 1000 ft but still gusty 25+. Will be an interesting day!

There are still two hardy people camped out in personal tents - everyone else has moved into one of the sturdier permanent tents . I've just braved the frigid blast to go across to the mess tent and make some coffee (works better than tea when the water is tepid!) and Ben is sitting next to the stove, hoodied (twice, I think) and headphoned watching movies on his laptop. Slept all day yesterday, he said - what else is there to do? Actually, he worked his butt off yesterday. The kids from Grise Fiord are all wired into the information age - iphones and laptops - and they find it easier to pass the time than I do.

An over simplified explanation of the politics: HMP is just outside an area owned by the native peoples of Nunavut which includes the whole of the Haughton Crater. The Grise Fiord community come across from Ellesmere Island to hunt and fish in the bays and inlets just to the north. Nunavut now has a capital, Iqaluit and, at least in theory, all the communities are administered from there. I suspect that it is just in theory. Each community speaks for itself as far as I can tell, and with some force. Just as with native title areas in Australia, permission is required to enter native lands and NASA has to go through the process each year in order to gain access to the Crater. In return, the Project employs local people and whenever possible uses community facilities - the Co-Op shop and the Co-Op hotel in Resolute, for instance.

And the rain is back. We will call Resolute in a couple of hours and we are on standby for whatever is available given the conditions. The C130 is due into Resolute tonight - no predictions at this stage but we did learn 2 years ago that things change amazingly fast up here.

Tomorrow will be the second anniversary of Berrimilla's transit of the ice in Franklin Sound - that scarily beautiful 0300 pinkout with a solid ice centre that, to me, marked the critical point in our NW Passage transit. A sort of full circle if we actually make it to Resolute this time!

Another night in the boonies

2010-08-13T07:23:00.001+10:00

The fog has lifted - just a bit. About a mile vis, lots of crosswind. No aircraft available - we are to call Polar Shelf again in an hour. Still a chance we could get out today but I think it's slim.

The best laid plans - while setting up to send the last one via Iridium I discovered that when I loaded the Sailmail application into this computer for this trip I forgot to transfer Berrimilla's address book and Sailmail only recognises addresses in its address book. And the blog address is complicated and I could not remember it - senile old fart that I am. So a phone call to my sister Isabella in the UK and she fired up my Gmail account and extracted the address from that. Egg all over face, but embarrassment tempered by fix.

The Humvee is jacked up on blocks for the winter - but not yet sealed. The mess tent still has power, the Palace of the Imperial Throne is cold and windy but functional - makes one wonder how the Franklin and Shackleton people managed in the icy and open conditions they faced, and for months at a time. The parts shrivel in sympathy! And I think about the need to go outside the shelter to empty the pee bucket on Elephant Island (and what to do about those who cheated) and I wonder how I would have survived - if at all. Hmm.

Everyone finding things to do - watching movies on their laptops, sleeping, writing blogs...again, how did the early survivors cope with the unknown - how long would it last; how to pass the time, day after day; peoples' idiosyncrasies that are ok when things are going well but grate under stress.

So who is left here - Steve Braham's team of communications heroes: Steve, resident super boffin, Parna, Isiah and Vik; the support team of John Schutt - amazing man and central pillar of the camp (Google him - astonishing career) with Jesse and Travis and the three kids hired from the Grise Fiord Community - Ben, Terry and Salya; then there's Geoff, the cook who now has no kitchen and Pascal and me. And, of course, Ping Pong.

Just heard no flights today - if we are lucky, then early tomorrow. We have all day to get to Resolute and load the Herc. Vancouver Saturday evening if all goes well.

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The logistics of evacuation - if you follow...

2010-08-13T02:33:00.001+10:00

Fogbound and then some on the edge of the crater. Visibility about 50 metres in drizzle and wind. Cold, damp and dismal physically but still exhilarating to be here. We have closed everything down except one tent and one small generator - no running water, Coleman stove for hot water for coffee or instant noodles, nuts and raisins and biscuits to go and that's it. We have all the food stored in the Humvee and if we really do have to stick it out here we can unseal it and retrieve more food. Final close down when we know about the weather and available flights.

No internet, so this via Iridium if I can get it to work...

There are 13 people and perhaps a ton of gear to get out to Resolute - tight squeeze but might just be possible in two Twotter flights if we can get them into here. Ideally, a third flight to take gear to Humvee Beach just south of Domville point on the west coast of Devon Island and to retrieve a snowmobile left there with the Humvee after the North West Passage drive (google it or www.marsinstitute.com and find a link).

There is an Air National Guard C130 due into Resolute early tomorrow to load us and the gear bound for NASA Ames and depart on the first leg to Yellowknife in the evening - a deadline we really do need to meet if we can because the Herc is a one-off trip and things can get expensively pearshaped if we miss it. If we make it, I'll get off in Vancouver and make my way back to Ottawa for my flight back to Sydney.

So that's it - for the mo!. No more pics until I get somewhere wired again. If I can get this to go, then I can keep all y'all posted as things develop.
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The logistics of bodily function

2010-08-11T22:58:00.001+10:00

People keep asking!

The poo is incinerated and the pee is flown out to Resolute where it goes into the sewage system. There will be 70 odd gallons of frozen pee here in the dark of winter waiting until the start of next season when it will be flown out on one of the empty flights returning from camp set-up. The blokes stand on the cooler box and let fly, the women use a jug in the privacy of the Palace and airlift it to the drum.

Kind of cool to think that there will be a bit of me up here for the winter.

Winding down

2010-08-11T19:42:00.001+10:00

We are 5 days short of the second anniversary of Berrimilla's closest approach to Beechey Island. Eerie feeling! We were about 40 miles south (so only 60 or so miles from here) when we called it off and turned east. The weather that day in Barrow Strait was awful - freezing rain, about 30 knots from the east and ice closing in and an unhelpful forecast.

One for the wall:
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/08/10/4861610-galactic-jewel-shines-in-its-setting

Today should be the final day for packing up the camp. We're down to the minimum in the kitchen, most of the comms are down with just the C band working to keep this internet link up for as long as possible, all the science is done, greenhouse comms set up for the winter and all but the essentials packed away. Everything must be packed dry because any moisture will freeze and possibly destroy the equipment and tents etc will mildew. There will be about a metre of snow and ice in winter. Then the whole place must be made bearproof - even the Humvee where the remaining food is stored is vulnerable to a hungry bear and the doors must be cargo-strapped.

If we get flights today, some of the 13 people left here will fly out with as much of the gear as will fit and tomorrow all the rest of the people and gear. All depends on the weather - we could end up camping in the mess tent living on noodles until Polar Shelf can get to us with aircraft. Here's the forecast:

http://www.flightplanning.navcanada.ca/Latest/gfa/anglais/Latest-gfacn37_cldwx_012-e.html?Produit=GFA&Region=37&Langue=anglais&NoSession=NS_Inconnu&Mode=graph

At 0430 (I'm in boat mode so three hour sleeps...) we have 8/8 at 2000 ft and 20 miles vis and it's not raining yet so flyable. We will hear from Resolute in about 3 hours.

Watch this space - the Mice are in charge.

News from the Throne Room.

2010-08-11T09:25:00.001+10:00

This may be the last email until we get back to Resolute - still taking down the camp and the internet comes down in an hour or so. More pics here
http://picasaweb.google.ca/alex1whit/TraverseThroughTheHaughtonCrater#
and I will keep adding to it until the comms go. The traverse would take all the cliches to describe - bright sunshine, awesome, breathtaking, gobsmacking amaaazing. All that stuff. And pretty cool too. We got back to camp after midnight. The crater is a very complex feature and I cannot do it justice - Pascal, on the other hand, knows it intimately and it was fascinating to listen. There's an old coral reef in the rim...
For the curious - the poop tent I took down yesterday was the backup - it housed the Second Throne. Today we took down the Poo Palace, after moving the Imperial Throne into the shed containing the about to hibernate ATVs. Pic will follow eventually.

It's astonishing what you can get into a Twotter. We had 3 flights today taking gear and people out - probably none tomorrow as the forecast is bleak. High wind and rain. Hoping to get everything out on Thursday.

More photos

2010-08-10T05:41:00.001+10:00

More added to this album
http://picasaweb.google.ca/alex1whit/PascalAndTheRover#

Sorry no captions yet - wireless link way too slow - may be able to add them later or when back in Resolute.

PS

2010-08-10T03:37:00.001+10:00

My job - at the bottom end of the pecking order - has been to take down the poop tent.

Did I really write that? Bleeah.

Down Under Mars on Devon

2010-08-10T03:26:00.001+10:00

Berrimilla has her own rock in this version of Mars
G Earth Berrimilla Rock @ 75 26'50.53N 89 54'08.50W.

Everyone working flat out to dismantle the camp ready for pull out over the next two days. Weather looks set to get nasty again and some urgency so these will be very short.

The photos:
The Rover team
End of a long and ultimately successful day
Ping Pong who runs the show - she's an Australian cattle dog.

Finally eiowt of there

2010-08-09T08:43:00.001+10:00

As the Canadians might say. Stunning, gobsmackingly beautiful cold desert landscape and the Camp is a buzz, literally. They are doing some interesting work. I'll try to describe as I get time to write these.
Photos here
http://picasaweb.google.ca/alex1whit/ToHMP#
http://picasaweb.google.ca/alex1whit/PascalAndTheRover#

I've been checked out on an All Terrain Vehicle aka a quad bike in Australia. Driving and safety rules are sensible - helmet, radio and shotgun if going out of sight of camp, always at least in pairs and usually threes with the most experienced front and rear. To preserve the landscape as much as possible, never - ever - go off the track. Tell someone where you are going...

The Haughton Crater is a mile or so away - I'm hoping to drive down into it tomorrow if anyone can be spared to be the lead traverse and show me the way.

Midnight Sun part 2

2010-08-08T17:43:00.001+10:00

Gmail dropped the pic.

The Midnight Sun

2010-08-08T17:31:00.001+10:00

Unremarkable except that I was beginning to think I'd never see it. The FZFG has dissipated for the moment along with the DRZ. Yeehaa! Now it has to stay dispersed until 0800 when everyone is awake and back in the office ready to fly.

We are too far north to see the recent spectacular northern lights displays across sub Arctic Canada (you need darkness to see them...) but this is a good substitute. Enjoy it with me.

One for my aircraft nut mates

2010-08-08T10:39:00.001+10:00

You know who you are! This is the wreck of an Avro York - sad. The York was a commercial airliner and freighter based loosely on the Lancaster bomber airframe. (There are 2 Lancasters here somewhere too) I remember seeing Yorks by the hundred flying over my grandmother's house during the Berlin Airlift - probably my first lesson in aircraft recognition was distinguishing Yorks from Tudors and DC3s. The photos are a bit limited, I'm afraid - was raining and I was watching for bears and short of time as well. Full sized versions when/if I ever get out of here and can send them to anyone who wants them. I might try to get better pics tomorrow if things improve.

This one crashed in 1955 0r 1956 as far as I can discover from the internet. Here's one link and there are others:
http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=88843
From the photos in this site, the wreckage has deteriorated significantly since they were taken. It would not be difficult to recover it but expensive. The wings and nascelles are substantially intact, most of the two main tailfins and elevator are there but mangled and full of bullet holes. The central fin is mixed up in there somewhere too. There are oil coolers and other bits and pieces scattered about. The fuselage is completely destroyed - looks as if there has been a fire at some stage. No sign of the 4 engines or the props. I guess 4 Merlins in any condition would have been souvenired years ago. There is a bulldozed gravel ramp close to the wreckage, possibly to assist with removal of the engines.

I suspect it must have crashed on snow or it would have been a lot more mangled by the terrain where it sits. Or it was pushed there by a bulldozer over snow.

Nothing quite like it...

2010-08-07T23:42:00.001+10:00

With apologies to Flanders and Swann. This stuff has sand and grit in it - no place to wallow.

A little bit of bliss in Resolute. Enjoy!

The Same.

2010-08-07T21:52:00.001+10:00

Murphy and the Examiner in a wreathing clammy clinch. Breeding imminent. Freezing rain again in Resolute. Appendages for a clearance this afternoon...
More 2008 and 2010 pics here - click on the Wildlife albums. Captions may follow today if we are still stuck here.
http://picasaweb.google.ca/home?tab=mq

And the sun came out

2010-08-07T11:45:00.001+10:00

And the planes flew - and ours went u/s on it's first trip and we who were second became second hand and here we still are. Appendages for tomorrow!

Some high arctic flowers here:
http://picasaweb.google.ca/alex1whit/HighArcticFlowers#

More photos - from Alaska 2008

2010-08-07T02:20:00.001+10:00

Fogggbound time put to use - I have collected my photos of wildflowers from Alaska in 2008 and put them here:
http://picasaweb.google.ca/alex1whit/TundraFlowersAlaska#
Captions to follow if I get time to go through and identify them. Takes a mindboggling time to do it - there must be an easier way.
And then I will put up some wildlife pics from the same time.

Unfortunately, I did not bring the Southern Ocean Albatrosses and the Kerguelen pics with me else I'd have got them sorted too. Nothing like a spot of freezing foggg to spur one to action.

Flabby in Resolute

2010-08-06T20:41:00.001+10:00

Still stuck in Resolute. This weather system seems to like it here but I wish it would go away.

Till it does, I've got a lot of time on my hands - can't roam far because of bears, did not bring my running shoes and have to stay close anyway in the forlorn hope that the freezing fog and drizzle will go away for long enough for a Twotter round trip to the Crater - about 45 minutes each way, but it has to be able to land at each end with some certainty.

So I've been headbanging with picasa web albums and there are some more photos here
http://picasaweb.google.ca/alex1whit/Resolute#

The Canadian army is moving in in strength for a big exercise - tents, field kitchens and soldiers everywhere.

Another tail...

2010-08-05T08:54:00.001+10:00

2 years ago we were in Cambridge Bay in Berrimilla waiting for the ice to open in the central NW Passage to the east. Here is the most recent ice coverage chart issued 2 days ago.
http://ice-glaces.ec.gc.ca/prods/WIS56CT/20100802180000_WIS56CT_0005118933.gif

The ice seems to be more extensive this year. I have just spoken to Peter Semotiuk, that wonderful man in Cambridge Bay who, in his own time, looks after all the small boats attempting the passage with twice daily radio skeds. He says there are about 9 vessels hanging around waiting including someone in a solo rowing boat who is about 70 miles east of us, holed up in a bay on Devon Island sheltering from the wind and snow. There's another in Pond Inlet, a couple in Greenland and others in the west near Point Barrow. Lancaster Sound was not nice when we flew over and I'm sure it's a lot nastier at the moment but things can change very fast.

But as Peter says, ain't no-one going nowhere at the moment and the central arctic ice is still solid. Just goes to emphasise how lucky we were when we went through.

In the photos, the icebreaker in the bay is the CCGS Henry Larsen. Her chopper has been doing crew transfers and freight lifts all day. A C17 that was scheduled to land earlier did a low pass over the airstrip and diverted to Yellowknife. I'm not surprised, but it seems to be clearing now and appendages crossed we will get out tomorrow.

Fun in the high arctic part 2

2010-08-04T23:23:00.001+10:00

Just got back to my room wrapped around nice crisp bacon sando and the fire alarm went off. In a wooden building, fire retardant materials notwithstanding, that means serious. Grabbed all my warm gear and evacuated to windy open shed nearby. There's snow blowing horizontally and drifting and struggling into warm gear in the swirling bluster ain't so squeezy. No sooner got it all on - I keep gloves, hat, neckies etc in the pockets - and we got called back inside. The place is full of Canadian soldiers and there were a lot of us out there. Left the camera behind so no pics.

Just another day in the boonies at 74.43N 094.59W.

The box

2010-08-04T21:28:00.001+10:00

aka the Arctic Hotel. It seems to have dropped off the last email. Elegant, functional cubist sculpture in wooden cladding.

And it's snowing again in Resolute. Yeehaa. Bacon sando and tabasco (but medicinally bereft) to follow this broadcast.

Fun in the high arctic

2010-08-04T20:55:00.002+10:00

The low is still plonk above us and it's windy, wet, cold and generally pearshaped and dismal. HMP is supported by the Polar Continental Shelf Program run by Natural Resources Canada. Polar Shelf operate the Twin Otters that supply the Camp and we are dependent on them and the weather for transport out of here. We will check with them in a couple of hours - looking out of my window, I think flying here would be ok but not necessarily on Devon where the Camp is at higher altitude and may be in or dangerously close to the cloudbase. I don't know the terrain over there - whether it would be possible to low fly safely below the cloud - but an interesting ride if so.

The weather is also testing my planning - what do you pack into a 20 kilo bag for a couple of weeks beside the Haughton crater? There's not a lot of room after the arctic sleeping bag and mat and I had to compromise. Lots of thin thermals, a quilted jacket that's seen better years and waterproof pants and an oversize sailing jacket. Gloves - 3 layers - monster socks, balaclavas and other headgear and neckies to keep the wind out of the jacket.Waterproof shoes - my Bering Sea fisho's boots were a bit too big and heavy but would have been ideal. So far so good but not really good enough for heavy freezing rain. I went for a walk with the camera yesterday and only my fingertips got cold. Kira has the right gear in the photo.

I never knowin what order gmail will load the photos - seems to be a bit random - the blue building is the Polar Shelf Program, the wooden box is the Arctic Hotel, there's a ship in the bay above the red truck (I magnified it to pixel grain and it has Peace on it's side - will research later) and at 75 degrees north, satellite dishes point to the horizon. And it's cold and wet and about 20 knots in all of them. And the airstrip with Twotter, choppers and a sort of boxcar in the distance.

Resolutely muddy

2010-08-04T09:06:00.001+10:00

The snow turned to rain and here we still are. This is why

http://www.flightplanning.navcanada.ca/Latest/gfa/anglais/Latest-gfacn37_cldwx_006-e.html?Produit=GFA&Region=37&Langue=anglais&NoSession=NS_Inconnu&Mode=graph

Resolute is under the centre of this little low and it's not moving very fast. Not a lot else has moved either.

The standard green sticker...

2010-08-03T21:08:00.001+10:00

Resolute views and the poor cold NASA mule. The green sticker goes on every boarding pass out of Iqaluit as soon as the weather looks marginally iffy.

This is just like the day we pulled the plug and turned for home 40 miles south in Berri in 2008.

Back to the Pillow Book

2010-08-03T19:38:00.001+10:00

It's snowing in Resolute - window closed, the Examiner lurks and the Twotter becomes something near yet distant....

Fwd: Resolute Bay...

2010-08-03T19:23:00.001+10:00

More pics here.
http://picasaweb.google.ca/alex1whit/ArcticTailsAndOtherStuff#

Squeaked into Resolute - 20 minutes later and the fog would have been too thick to land - Murphy and the Examiner clearly out of practice. The Arctic in all its stunning desolate in your face indifferent beauty, Arctic Poppies and mosquitoes included. Iqaluit to Nanisivik mostly cloudy but it opened to allow us to land and I felt that eerie shiver - back again, without the stress and again gobsmacked by the splendour of it all. Out of Nanisivik over Arctic Bay and Admiralty Inlet and the same patch of ice - I'm sure it was! - that we had to dodge in Berri almost exactly 2 years ago - past Prince Leopold hugged by the cloudbank and across Berri's track from the photo in an earlier blog post. Into Resolute and Kira drove me in the NASA mule to the insulated box of the Arctic Hotel and then we went out into the Arctic night to look at downtown Resolute and the ice in the bay. Cold wet wind across the 1000 year Inuit settlement - whalebone and a walrus skull - and more poppies. There's a bear warning in force so one on watch all the time...

0345 now (1845 tonight in Sydney) and the BBC in the background - still low cloud and gloom outside - I have my window open because the room is way too hot - I can see the tail of the battered old HS 748 that brought us in. If the cloud lifts, Twin Otter to HMP in a few hours. Woohoo!. I have my Naturalist's Guide to the Arctic from the airport shop in Iqaluit and I'll try to do better with the descriptions as we go. Slow link here and uploading pics not a little tedious. I need Marvin for the car parking work but he'd be utterly incapable of describing the exhilaration of being back - awestruck astonishment too at being only about 40 miles from Berri's eastward turn two years ago. Doesn't seem in tune with humdrum reality.

Ottawa in August

2010-08-02T14:14:00.001+10:00

3 different aeroplanes so far and at least 2 more tomorrow for the flight to Resolute. Today's lot not too bad and Murphy and the Examiner declined to intervene so here I am.

Idle musings on the way about different lives - squashed in a window seat 5 miles above night time Canada and looking down through gaps in the cloud at the headlights of the cars on isolated roads and wondering what the drivers could see ahead and how their day's experience influenced their moods. I doubt that most of them had the quiet excitement of anticipating tomorrow's flight and of seeing again the desolate grandeur of the high arctic.

Dry July is over - Dr Gordon had a cameo part in the long trip across the Pacific today and between us, Pete and I raised a bit over $2000 thanks to the generosity of all y'all.

No photos yet - was dark or cloudy - but I'll try to get some desolation in the viewfinder tomorrow and maybe even a glimpse of Berri's little track along its edge..

HMP link

2010-07-28T07:52:00.001+10:00

View HMP in a larger map

The call of the Arctic.

2010-07-25T09:15:00.005+10:00

It looks as if it might actually happen! Next Sunday I'm flying to Ottawa on a big aeroplane and then the next day on a much smaller aeroplane from Ottawa north to Iqaluit, along the length of Baffin Island to Nanisivik and then across Lancaster Sound to Resolute Bay. We will reverse my earlier experience of arriving at Cape Desolation in Berrimilla after flying over it less than a year before. This time we will cross Berrimilla's actual track close to Prince Leopold Island (in the background in the photo).

The flight from Ottawa crosses some of the most desolate terrain in the world. One of my favourite authors, Ernest K Gann, wrote a novel about this corner of Canada based on an actual plane crash and the search in which he took part - it was called Island in the Sky and it was made into a film. I have never seen the film but the book is a wonderful description of the territory.

From Resolute, weather permitting, on an even smaller aeroplane, probably a Twin Otter, to Devon Island and the Haughton Mars Camp. There are several blogs by the scientists up there - here is one I have just been sent:
http://voicesfromspace.blogspot.com/

I've spent the last week squeezing all my arctic survival gear into a small bag and collecting all the camera and computer and satphone connector gizmos into a heap so that I can distribute them around the pockets in my jacket - less chance of losing them in the baggage transfers!

So there will be photos, bloggery and possibly - for the Australians - a satellite phone call to Macca on Sunday August 8th.

And still Dry...

Watch this space.

HMP in google earth

2010-07-18T14:13:00.001+10:00

I have been trying to post a google earth placemark on this blog so that it works as a link. I'm sure it must be possible but it has defeated me so if you want to find the Haughton Mars Camp, feed these co-ordinates into google earth and they should take you there.

75.26.00.63N 89.51.58.20W

There may be a link on the HMP website as well. www.marsinstitute.com and click on HMP

Good luck!

Respectability for an old fart?

2010-07-14T21:32:00.001+10:00

Another abridged version of the North West Passage transit - this one appropriately acknowledging Corrie and Kimbra - in the Friends of the Pitt Rivers Museum Newsletter. What an erudite spot for a scruffy old geezer to hang a byline! And all from talking to a spaceman on Berrimilla's batphone. Thanks to the Editor for permission to post the page - and to Leroy Chiao for a special kind of erudition.

For those of you who don't know, there's a longer article in the July issue of Yachting World. It would be interesting to know how the Friends overlap with the readers of Yachting World.

Devon Island YES!

2010-07-14T18:01:00.001+10:00

From Keith Cowing www.spaceref.com

Alex:

At last , you get to see our smelly, isolated, quirky, home away from home!

Pictures, blogs, PLEASE!

Get Pascal to take you north to the canyons and inlets. And please get to Beechey Island if at all possible.

Working on it mate - working on it. Watch this space.

Haughton Mars Camp

2010-07-14T07:13:00.001+10:00

For anyone still following, the blog will resurrect in a few days. I have been invited up to Devon Island by Pascal as part of the summer programme for the Haughton Mars Project (www.marsinstitute.com and click on HMP) and I'm flying up there on august 1st for about 10 days - almost exactly two years since we got so close in Berrimilla.

I'll take a laptop and the satphone so that I can keep the blog going but will only be able to send photos if I can use the camp internet connection. If not, then lots when I get back.

Crossing the fingers and all other appendages that I might be able to visit the Fraknlin graves at Beechey Island. We got so close enough in 2008 to see the cliffs behind Beechey. Go to http://www.johngeiger.net/frozen.html for the book and the story. The photos of young John Torrington, who died on January 1st 1846 and his two colleagues have for years haunted me - until I met Pascal in Louisiana, I never imagined that I might one day visit their graves.

Dry July and other stuff

2010-06-19T18:16:00.001+10:00

Last Wednesday, Pete and I gave a presentation to 220 or so people at the Cruising Yacht Club in Sydney and amongst other thngs we raised $786 for Dry July and cancer research. Which I banked on Thursday.

This afternoon Robin gave me another $14 to round it up to $800 - Thanks Robin. I will bank it on Monday.

Other stuff:
Might anyone be interested in an Oz version of the Jester Challenge - perhaps The Jester Challenge Down Under with a gig from Sydney Heads around NZ and back? About the same distance as the original with a few more possible stops if things get pearshaped.

http://www.jesterinfo.org/thejesterchallenge2010.html

Let me know.

Consultations in Constraint

2010-06-02T15:43:00.002+10:00

I don't know how many of you are still out there following this nonsense but if you are, Pete and I have signed up for a rather more significant journey.

We don't usually do sponsorship, in either direction, but during all our voyages and presentations we have made a point of raising money for kids and others with cancer as a memorial tribute to a couple of young friends. This time we have decided to be something of an Old Farts Rump in Adam Spencer's Breakfast Booze Busters crew in an enterprise called Dry July. www.dryjuly.com

For the aliens, Adam Spencer hosts the Breakfast radio programme on Australia's 2BL national radio network. http://www.abc.net.au/sydney/programs/702_breakfast/ He's a bit of a genius, a thoroughly good guy, appears to have even less hair than me (but hasn't - I think he shaves for that super shiny look...) and would understand all our Hitchiker jokes. He interviewed us on our way home from the Kerguelens.

Accordingly, there will be no Consultations for the whole month of July. That's 31 days. Our crew of medical specialists, Drs Gordon, Cooper, Murphy, Windhoek, the Doctor from Dublin, Dr Dry from Cork, the Barber Surgeon (Mr Talisker) and all the rest will become rail meat for the duration. For the uninitiated, that means no alcohol for Pete and me for 31 days. All Medicinal Compounds will be banished to the outer darkness. I can just hear Marvin telling us how much we won't enjoy it.

If any of you would like to join us in one of the very best of causes, please sign on at www.dryjuly.com, then when you are signed on, find the options and select 'join a team' and look for Breakfast Booze Busters in the drop down menu or enter team number 2102.. Then get to work finding sponsors. If total abstention is a bit too hard, contributions would be entirely acceptable. Ideally, we would like you to sponsor us - say $1.00/day. You can do this through me and this blog or directly to the Team via the website.

I'll try to keep a running commentary going as we progress.

Thanks!

Berrimilla's travels since December 26 2004

2010-05-29T09:44:00.003+10:00

With thanks to my diary for the world map. Small scale and approximate but close enough for a sailing ship.

The blue line is Sydney, Cape Horn, UK, Sydney in 2005 and the red line is Sydney - UK via the North West Passage in 2008 and back to Sydney via the Kerguelen Islands 2009-10. Each includes a Fastnet Race.

Last launch for Atlantis

2010-05-27T18:10:00.001+10:00

Hauntingly beautiful video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKPqomW5kDI&feature=autofb

Lots more links on the right. With thanks to Matt for the main link.

Pascal Lee and Leroy Chiao

2010-05-14T06:52:00.000+10:00

Pascal is out on the sea ice in the Wellington Channel between Cornwallis Island and Devon Island right now (zoom out to see exactly where that is). He's driving a specially equipped tracked Humvee and simulating a pressurised Moon Rover.

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0e3h8JV5kbk0Bap9IpsiC1IoEGBiiXYxs

The background story is here
http://www.marsinstitute.info/

And Leroy and Miles O'Brien will be doing live commentary on the final launch of the shuttle Atlantis tomorrow. Only 2 more shuttle flights after Atlantis (click on the live webcast link on the left). Liftoff is scheduled for 1330 GMT or 2230 AEST Friday.

http://spaceflightnow.com/

Something for the (adult?) kids?

2010-05-12T09:49:00.000+10:00

A friend at NASA Ames sent me this and asked me to spread the word. A chance to do some science.

http://www.moonzoo.org/

Thanks for coming!

2010-05-10T12:06:00.001+10:00

Was fantastic to see all y'all yesterday - thanks for coming. Pete and Berri and I had a wonderful day and we hope you did too.

Special thanks to Scott and Florian who laid on the food, and to RANSA for years of support and for letting us use the Club yesterday.

Some coming home party photos

2010-05-09T19:34:00.001+10:00

http://picasaweb.google.com.au/alex1whit/BerriComingHomeParty?authkey=Gv1sRgCI_-zKmJ8vvo7QE#

Something else to follow

2010-05-05T15:06:00.001+10:00

Pascal Lee and his team are about to drive a tracked Humvee from Resolute to Devon Island across the sea ice of the Wellingtom Channel.

Follow them here

http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/analogs/

Rain or Shine

2010-04-30T17:02:00.001+10:00

The Party will happen next Sunday, May 9th . See all y'all there...

Thanks to everyone who has checked in.

If you have received a Kergy cover or you expect one...

2010-04-29T18:50:00.002+10:00

It seemed to me that something like the following 'certificate' might give future provenance to the Kerguelen covers as my signature should correspond with the one on each envelope. If you want one, send me an email and a snailmail address - even if you think I have it already.

Could not get the photo to load as part of the file but there will be a front and reverse pic at the top.